


Waiting for the Rain To End

by GreyLiliy



Series: Whumptober 2020 - Peter Parker [18]
Category: Spider-Man the Animated Series (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Panic Attacks, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27784996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreyLiliy/pseuds/GreyLiliy
Summary: He jumped at the splash of water.
Relationships: Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson, Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson (Clone)
Series: Whumptober 2020 - Peter Parker [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1975432
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	Waiting for the Rain To End

**Author's Note:**

> _Whumptober 2020!  
>  Prompt No 18. PANIC! AT THE DISCO  
> Panic Attacks ~~| Phobias | Paranoia~~  
> _
> 
> When I was younger, I loved watching the Spider-Man Animated TV series. I don’t remember much from it (aside from the general “I liked this show!”), save for one thing: The reveal that Mary Jane was a water clone after she married Peter.
> 
> That messed me up as a kid. It was such a huge deal to me and left me staring at the TV with my jaw open. Mary Jane evaporating in front of Peter was right up there with Annie’s Death in Batman: The Animated Series with Clayface and Robin—it stuck with me.
> 
> When I first saw the theme of “Panic Attacks” I went “Everyone does the tight spaces/building feel on Peter” thing. So I thought about it for a while and then I remembered Clone Mary Jane and said “Perfect.”
> 
> As gutted as I was a kid when I watched this story arc, it still remains one of my all time favorites so it’s fun to get to write about it (and makes me long for an AU where she stabilized and Peter was married to Clone Mary Jane with awesome water powers…).
> 
> Thank you for reading and enjoy!

He jumped at the splash of water.

Peter held his chest as he looked up and watched the broken rain gutter bang against the side of the building in the wind. A stream of water poured out of the other side in small waterfall, thick and loud in the light rain.

The rain kept tapping on his hair and coat as he stood in the street. The broken rain gutter continued to dump water in thick, irregular patches as the wind shook the metal and the water ran down the roof tiles of the short building hiding among the skyscrapers.

He closed his eyes and kept walking.

It was just water.

The only living thing it held was bacteria and other microorganisms hiding in the droplets. Peter broke down the chemical make-up of water in his mind, repeating it over and over as he continued down the sidewalk toward his apartment. The water wasn’t alive. The rain was a needed, important part of life.

Water sustained life, but it wasn’t alive in and of itself.

Not like her—

Peter stopped again and closed his eyes.

“Don’t think about it,” he repeated. Warren was long gone and there was nothing he could do. There was nothing left for him to fix—Mary Jane disappeared in a vapor, and a new clone wouldn’t have been the same woman. Not that Peter would have noticed—he certainly hadn’t noticed that he was with a clone and not the real Mary—Peter bit his lip and closed his eyes. “Do not think about it.”

He opened his eyes and saw steam pouring out of the sidewalk grate.

A wisp of vapor, dancing up and around the droplets around him.

His breath hitched.

Hydroman’s shouts and screams echoed in his ears. Each rain drop was a bunch to his side. A wave of water throwing him around. Mary Jane’s screams. She washed away in the water—but she could control it too? Maybe? He’d never seen it but she had been made of water.

How did the water hurt her?

The room had been cold.

Peter’s breath felt chilled but there was still hot hair coming from the ground. Vapor around him. The room had been cold and they’d still evaporated into the air. Their forms changed from a tangible, wet mass to a gaseous form that diffused into nothing. Nothing to hold onto.

Nothing to touch.

A tightness squeezed in his chest.

Mary Jane had been right there. Warren’s name had screamed from his lips. She said Mary Jane loved him.

But she loved him, too.

Mary Jane evaporated in a blink and the cold water surrounded him. Too much water. The wrecked and torn metal surrounded him, destroyed by Hydroman’s last struggle and fury to hold onto life. More water. Too much in his lungs. It stopped his breath and choked him. It cut off his vision leaving only the dark. It washed him away until he was alone.

In the water and the vapor.

With a tight chest and no air.

Like he was drowning in water. In her and—

“Hey, buddy! You need to breathe.”

A hot touch on his shoulder, cutting straight through his jacket drew Peter’s eye. The water was gone. Peter glanced up to see a striped awning, blocking the rain from his face and shoulders.

“That’s it, good lad,” the man said, rubbing Peter’s arms to warm him up. “In and out. Deep breaths now.”

Peter rested on the wall and closed his eyes. The rain continued to pound outside, though he could no longer hear the thicker stream of the broken gutter. A light pitter patter above his head and on the street. The man kept repeating himself, saying in and out until Peter did as instructed. The world came back into focus and Peter looked at a stranger he didn’t recognize.

“Hey, there,” the man said. “You back with us?”

“Yeah.” Peter reached up and rubbed between his eyes, exhaling. “I am, thank you.”

“You had a panic attack before?” the man asked, careful with his words. “I don’t want to assume, but it’s good to know that’s what happened if you haven’t.”

“Not for a long time,” Peter said, dropping his hand. “And not for this.”

The old man nodded and patted Peter on the arm one more time. “You okay to get home now? Or do you need me to call a taxi?”

“I’ll be fine,” Peter said. He turned his head and noticed the building behind him was a restaurant. Quiet and dark with warm lighting. He pointed over his shoulder through the window. “I think I might hang out in there until the rain passes, though.”

“Whatever helps,” the man said. The stranger nodded and walked away with a quiet wave. “Have a good evening, lad.”

Peter leaned against the glass of the window and smiled at the random kindness of an old man. Had he experience with panic attacks himself? Was he a doctor who’d seen them? Who knew? Peter appreciated the tug out of his own head all the same.

He entered the restaurant and asked for a table for one, dumping his coat in the chair on the other side of the small couple’s table. He ordered a water and a small lunch special he knew Mary Jane would have teased him about ordering because she wouldn’t want to steal any of it from his plate.

Peter watched the rain while he waited for his food.

Mary Jane was out there somewhere waiting for him.

Both of them.

Water wasn’t destroyed when it evaporated—it just dispersed. Maybe one day Mary Jane would come back together, drop by drop and find him again like she had the first time.

Peter could only hope they were both safe and wait.


End file.
